Identification of sources of resistance to yellow rust in barley landraces grown in the northwest regions of Iran

Barley yellow rust is one of the important barley diseases in the world. However, the importance of this disease has recently increased in Iran. The main aim of the present study was to identify the sources of resistance to this disease in a collection of Iranian barley genotypes provided from the National Plant Gene Bank of Iran (NPGBI). For this purpose, a set of 128 accessions of the north and northwest regions of Iran were assessed in terms of resistance components such as disease severity, infection type and coefficient of infection under natural incidence of the disease in the field of Ardebil Research Station as a hotspot region for barley yellow rust during 2019-2022 cropping seasons. The results indicated a considerable genetic diversity among the tested genetic materials in response to this disease. A moderate correlation was observed between the evaluations of different years. The accessions were separated into five groups using cluster analysis, and the second group with 41 members with the lowest infection coefficient average was identified as the most resistant group. The results of this research showed the high capacity of the collection to identify sources of resistance to barley yellow rust disease. The identified resistant germplasm can be used in breeding programs for resistance to this disease.